Related Tags:

YOKOHAMA, Japan (CBSNewYork/AP) -- The White House said it’s taking a new report from a UN scientific panel that includes a Princeton professor, as a call for action on global warming.

Secretary of State John Kerry said the report shows that “the costs of inaction are catastrophic.”

According to the head of the UN panel, the world needs to cut pollution from heat-trapping gases, or the already-noticeable harms from global warming could spiral “out of control.”

The report, from a Nobel Prize-winning group of scientists, says 21st-century disasters including killer heat waves in Europe, wildfires in the United States and droughts in Australia highlight how vulnerable humanity is to extreme weather. And the scientists say the dangers are going to worsen as the climate changes even more.

Princeton professor Michael Oppenheimer, one of the main authors, says, “We’re all sitting ducks.”

More than 100 governments unanimously approved the 49-page summary, which is aimed at world political leaders. The summary mentions the word “risk” an average of more than five times a page.